During Bush’s early clumsy fumbles after Katrina, some said “The Bush Era is over.” Just remember

the Republican Juggernaut is as relentless as a terminator — nothing will make them give up their mission to bankrupt the Federal

government and discredit all forms of government. So, once the new TV season is in full swing, expect them to resume as if nothing has

changed. Because nothing has, other than a few more people seeing Bush for what he is — and they hardly need him anymore. mjh

Bush Repackaged By Eleanor Clift, Newsweek

To hear Bush talk,

we’re about to witness a Republican utopia in the hurricane zone. Children will go to school with vouchers. Wages will

be lowered and regulations waived to accommodate the big contractors. The entire area will become a free-enterprise zone. And the GOP,

under the guise of economic revival, will impose one of its favorite ideas, the flat tax. It’s reminiscent of the Jim Carrey movie “The

Truman Show,” where Carrey lives in a picture-perfect town–except it turns out all the residents are actors. In Bush’s version,

everybody’s a Republican. …

Democrats are up against a coordinated, energetic effort on the right to implement policies

conservative theorists have been hoping to put into place for a long time. The rebuilding effort is ideologically motivated and

influenced by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that fueled the Reagan presidency. The proposals in a report titled

“Tragedy to Triumph” are premised on the belief that corporations freed from labor unions, environmental restrictions and onerous taxes

will reap huge profits and those profits will grow the pie for everybody–and at least create some crumbs for the masses.

This is a pivotal moment in politics with a president severely compromised and the country poised to embrace a

contrary view of government that rejects the Darwinian capitalism of the Reagan-Bush era. …

The White House, in order to repair

Bush’s image, is doing what Republicans used to accuse Democrats of doing–throwing money at the problem. … Majority leader Tom DeLay

had the gall to boast of an “ongoing victory” under 11 years of Republican control, but he may have to eat those words next November. The

’06 election will be a referendum on Republican governance, and in the wake of the Katrina debacle, the GOP has lost its aura of

competence. If they can’t get hurricane relief right, how can they keep us safe from terrorists? …

There is already a lot of

money flowing to the gulf region, and people with close ties to the White House could be among those who benefit. The gold rush is on.

Progressives better make a case for reinvigorating government before Bush and his pals dismantle what’s left of the New Deal.

Bush’s

vision for New Orleans: a profiteer’s paradise

Corporate profiteering from the disaster is only the tip of the

iceberg. Bush’s allies in the Republican-controlled Congress are urging that reconstruction be accompanied by measures limiting victims’

right to sue, establishing school vouchers, lifting restrictions on federal funds for religious groups, suspending environmental

regulations on new oil refineries, waiving the estate tax, and enacting a flat tax. “The desire to bring conservative, free-market ideas

to the Gulf Coast is white hot,” said Representative Mike Pence of Indiana. …

This rejection of “big government”

applies, however, only to those federal functions left over from the past that have to do with protecting the physical and economic

security of working people. When it comes to maintaining law and order and protecting the property of the wealthy, however, Bush is

emphatically in favor of federal power and the use of military force. …

Bush concluded: “It is now clear that a challenge on

this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces—the institution of our government most capable of

massive logistical operations on a moment’s notice.”

Thus the failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the

Homeland Security Department in Hurricane Katrina is used as the justification for making the military takeover of New Orleans a

precedent for future and broader exercises in martial law. The posse comitatus law, Bush implied, which bars the military from domestic

policing, must be weakened or repealed outright.

Bush’s reputation hinging on

Gulf Coast’s recovery :: The Daily Herald, Provo Utah

The president’s call for a “Gulf Opportunity Zone” is intriguing, but

he needs to make sure storm relief doesn’t become a Trojan horse for every conservative ideologue’s favorite pet project. Flat tax,

anyone?

Tomah Journal – Opinion
Big-

government liberal? Look who’s talking
By Steve Rundio

Still don’t believe big-government conservatism exists? Compare

spending patterns of the Clinton and Bush years. Under Clinton, federal spending went up 13.3 percent over eight years. Bush needed just

four years to jack up spending by 19.7 percent. The difference isn’t defense spending. Clinton raised non-defense discretionary spending

by 15.1 percent in eight years. Under four years of Bush, it’s up 25.3 percent. …

There’s nothing good about big-

government conservatism. It’s an iron triangle of politicians, lobbyists and industry wallowing in the spoils of government

contracting and favoritism linked to campaign contributions. The recipient of big-government liberalism is likely to be a 90-year-old who

can’t get out of bed, or a pregnant teen in need of pre-natal care. The recipient of big-government conservatism is a

Halliburton executive or someone who lobbies on Halliburton’s behalf.

[via Coco and Tim McGivern]

—–

The Progress Report – American Progress Action Fund
KATRINA: New Problem, Same Mistakes
by Judd Legum,

Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, Amanda Terkel, Payson Schwin and Christy Harvey

Already, watchdog groups, “including two in New York

that have monitored the post-9/11 reconstruction of Lower Manhattan,” are warning Gulf Coast leaders to “closely monitor the design of

Hurricane Katrina aid packages so that low- and moderate-income people, unemployed workers, and small businesses are treated fairly.”

They pointed out that after 9/11, “rules that normally restrict federal economic funding to primarily benefit low- and moderate-income

communities were stripped out,” as is being suggested now. As a result, the groups says, “much of the $20 billion allocated for

economic development has benefited real estate developers and wealthy neighborhoods.”

—–

TomDispatch – Tomgram: The

Reconstruction of New Oraq By Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse

Leading the list was Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), a

subsidiary of the energy firm Halliburton, the mega-corporation Vice President Dick Cheney once presided over. From providing

fuel to building bases, doing KP to supplying laundry soap, it supported the newly privatized, stripped-down American military — and for

that it “received more money from the U.S. involvement in Iraq than any other contractor,” a sum that has already crested ten billion

dollars with no end in sight. The Bechtel Corporation, the San Francisco-based engineering firm, known at home for its staggering cost

overruns on Boston’s “Big Dig” and its especially close ties to the Republican Party, raked in almost $3 billion in Iraq reconstruction

contracts just in the nine months after the fall of Saddam Hussein. …

In fact, with Congress already making a $62

billion initial down payment on post-Katrina reconstruction work, the Bush administration has just given out its first 6 reconstruction

contracts, five of them — could anyone be surprised — to Iraqi reconstructors, including Fluor. Small world indeed.

The Bush version of crony capitalism should perhaps be termed predatory capitalism, following as it does so closely in

the wake of war and natural disaster much as camp followers used to trail armies, ready, in case of victory, to loot the baggage train of

the enemy.

But let’s pull back for a moment and try to reconstruct, however briefly, at least a modest picture of the massively

interconnected world of the reconstructors. A good place to start is with George Bush’s pal Joseph Allbaugh, a member of his “so-called

iron triangle of trusted Texas cohorts.” Allbaugh seems to display in his recent biography just about every linkage that makes New Oraq

what it is clearly becoming. He ran the Bush presidential campaign of 2000; and subsequently was installed as the director of FEMA which,

in congressional testimony, he characterized as “an overstuffed entitlement program,” counseling (as Harold Meyerson of the American

Prospect pointed out recently) “states and cities to rely instead on ‘faith-based organizations… like the Salvation Army and the

Mennonite Disaster Service.” …

George Bush’s version of capitalism is of a predatory, parasitical kind. It

feeds on death, eats money, goes home when the cash stops flowing, and leaves further devastation in its wake. New Orleans, like a

rotting corpse, naturally attracts all sorts of flies.

I’m only slightly hopeful that

the spell has been broken and more people see Bush for the distant, muddle-headed fool he is. Only slightly hopeful that a few more

people see the Emperor is buck naked. mjh

President Bush Meets the Press in New

Orleans, Admits ‘Sense of Relaxation’ After Hurricane Hit

THE PRESIDENT: … And I know there’s been a lot of

second-guessing. I can assure you I’m not interested in that. What I’m interested in is solving problems. And there will be

time to take a step back and to take a sober look at what went right and what didn’t go right. There’s a lot of information

floating around that will be analyzed in an objective way, and that’s important. And it’s important for the people of this country to

understand that all of us want to learn lessons. If there were to be a biological attack of some kind, we’ve got to make sure we

understand the lessons learned to be able to deal with catastrophe. …

THE PRESIDENT: Look, there will be plenty of time to

play the blame game. That’s what you’re trying to do.

Q No, I’m trying to —

THE PRESIDENT: You’re

trying to say somebody is at fault. Look — and I want to know. I want to know exactly what went on and how it went on. And we’ll

continually assess inside my administration. I sent Mike Chertoff down here to make an assessment of how best to do the job. He made a

decision; I accepted his decision. But we’re moving on. We’re going to solve these problems. And there will be ample time for people to

look back and see the facts.

Now, as far as my own personal popularity goes, I don’t make decisions based upon polls. I hope the

American people appreciate that. You can’t make difficult decisions if you have to take a poll. That’s been my style ever since I’ve

been the President. And, of course, I rely upon good people. Of course, you got to as the President of the United States. You set the

space, you set the strategy, you hold people to account. But yeah, I’m relying upon good people. …

Q Did they misinform you

when you said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees?

THE PRESIDENT: No, what I was referring to is this. When that

storm came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet [1]. When that storm came through at first, people said, whew.

There was a sense of relaxation, and that’s what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet [2].

You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways [?], say, the bullet has been dodged

[3]. And that was what I was referring to.

Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. There was a sense of

relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And thank you for giving me a chance to clarify that.

Q Mr. President, where were you

when you realized the severity of the storm?

THE PRESIDENT: I was — I knew that a big storm was coming on Monday, so I spoke to

the country on Monday morning about it. I said, there’s a big storm coming. I had pre-signed emergency declarations in anticipation of a

big storm coming.

Q Mr. President —

THE PRESIDENT: — which is, by the way, extraordinary. Most

emergencies the President signs after the storm has hit. It’s a rare occasion for the President to anticipate the severity of a

storm and sign the documentation prior to the storm hitting. So, in other words, we anticipated a serious storm coming. But as

the man’s question said, basically implied, wasn’t there a moment where everybody said, well, gosh, we dodged the

bullet [4], and yet the bullet hadn’t been dodged [5].

Q Mr. President —

THE PRESIDENT: Last

question.

Q This is two weeks in. You must have developed a clear image at this point of one critical thing that failed,

one thing that went wrong in the first five days.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think there will be plenty of time to

analyze, particularly the structure of the relationship between government levels. But, again, there’s — what I think Congress needs to

do — I know Congress needs to do — and we’re doing this internally, as well — is to take a sober look at the decision-making that

went on. …

Thank you all.

I noticed in my stats that several people had found my blog by searching for “Cheney fuck

you.” What they found was my account of Cheney

swearing in the Senate at a Democratic Senator (decorum and civility being so important to Republicans). But why would so many people

be looking for this item from June, 2004? More likely, they were looking for the details of someone swearing at Cheney in Mississippi.

mjh

‘Going to Get It Done,’ Cheney Vows on Gulf

Tour – New York Times

In Gulfport, a block off the ocean on Second Street, in a neighborhood so devastated that residents

needed permits to visit their destroyed properties and had to be out by dark, a heckler in an orange shirt hurled profanities twice to

disrupt Mr. Cheney’s remarks, but the vice president just smiled his lopsided smile and, when asked, said it was the first time he had

heard such guff.

We all wish

we could, I suppose. | MetaFilter

Today, during Cheney’s tour of storm damaged Miss., a resident approached Cheney’s press

meeting and shouted: “Go f_ck yourself, Mr. Cheney!! Go f_ck yourself!!!”. The exhortation was aired on at least one national cable

channel. Here is the video ( ALT ). The LA Times,CNN, and FOX are carrying the story.
posted by troutfishing

what tian has learned: Go

F_ck Your Self, Mr. Cheney

During a discussion on hurricane relief efforts, an off camera protester shouts, “Go fuck yourself,

Mr. Cheney. Go fuck yourself.” The camera remains on Cheney while we hear scuffling in the background.

Google Search: dick cheney go fuck yourself

Rooftop Revolt — Overthrow Bush

Advance Men in Charge – New York Times

Political patronage has always been a hallmark of Washington life. But President Bill Clinton appointed political pals at FEMA who

actually knew something about disaster management. The former FEMA director James Lee Witt, whose tenure is widely considered a major

success, was a friend of Mr. Clinton’s when he took office in 1993, but he had run the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services. His top

staff came from regional FEMA offices.

Surely there are loyal Republicans among the 50 directors of state emergency services. But

President Bush chose to make FEMA a dumping ground for unqualified cronies – a sure sign that he wanted to hasten the degradation of an

agency that conservative Republicans have long considered an evil of big government. Katrina has proved that federal disaster help is

vital, and that Mr. Brown and his team of advance men can’t do the job. What America needs are federal disaster relief people who

actually know something about disaster relief.

Point Those Fingers – New York Times By

PAUL KRUGMAN

The administration followed the same principles in staffing FEMA. The agency had become a highly professional

organization during the Clinton years, but under Mr. Bush it reverted to its former status as a “turkey farm,” a source of patronage

jobs.

As Bloomberg News puts it, the agency’s “upper ranks are mostly staffed with people who share two traits: loyalty to

President George W. Bush and little or no background in emergency management.” By now everyone knows FEMA’s current head went from

overseeing horse shows to overseeing the nation’s response to disaster, with no obvious qualifications other than the fact that he was

Mr. Allbaugh’s college roommate.

All that’s missing from the Katrina story is an expensive reconstruction effort, with lucrative

deals for politically connected companies, that fails to deliver essential services. But give it time – they’re working on that, too.

Why did the administration make the same mistakes twice? Because it paid no political price the first time. …

Will this be

enough to let the administration get away with another failure? Let’s hope not: if the administration isn’t held accountable for what

just happened, it will keep repeating its mistakes. Michael Brown and Michael Chertoff will receive presidential medals, and the next

disaster will be even worse.

Osama and Katrina – New York Times By THOMAS

L. FRIEDMAN

And then there are the president’s standard lines: “It’s not the government’s money; it’s your money,” and, “One

of the last things that we need to do to this economy is to take money out of your pocket and fuel government.” Maybe Mr. Bush will now

also tell us: “It’s not the government’s hurricane – it’s your hurricane.”

An administration whose tax policy has been

dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist – who has been quoted as saying: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want

to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub” – doesn’t have the instincts for this

moment. …

The Bush team has engaged in a tax giveaway since 9/11 that has had one underlying assumption: There will never be

another rainy day. Just spend money. You knew that sooner or later there would be a rainy day, but Karl Rove has assumed it wouldn’t

happen on Mr. Bush’s watch – that someone else would have to clean it up. Well, it did happen on his watch.

Mr. Bush’s Storm

Among the sound bites of his presidency that Mr. Bush will most regret, one will surely be “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” That was Mr. Bush’s valentine last week to his hapless FEMA director, Michael D. Brown.